Process of making tie-plates.



No. 722,152. PATENTED MAR. 3, 19 03.

J. M. SELLERS. PROCESS OF MAKINGTIE PLATES.

APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 18, 1901. 0 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

Mimgisses No. 722,152. PATENTED MAR. s, 1903.

J. M. SELLERS. 2 PROCESS OF MAKING TIE PLATES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 18, 1901.

2 sums-sum 2.

llllillihil mm; mm

N0 MODEL.

Q 151 2 Z7265 S65 1 @Wm mi/SM TWA/5771b! I "YVM W W THE NORRIS PETERScav PNOTO-LlYHO-."WASHINGTON, u. c.

UNITED STATES ATENT union.

JOHN M; SELLERS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PROCESS OF MAKING TIE-PLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 722,152, dated March3, 1903.

Original application filed February 4, 1901, Serial No. 16,023. Dividedand this application filed March 18, 1901. Serial No. 51,733. (Nomodel.) i 7 To all who/2t it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN M. SELLERS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Making Tie-Plates, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the process of making improvedtie-plates shown and described inmy pending application for UnitedStates Letters Patent filed February at, 1901, Serial No. 46,023, ofwhich this present application is a division.

The object of my invention is to furnish a simple, effective, andeconomical process for manufacturing said tie-plates from old or damagedrails, preferably from what are commonly known as T-rails. It is obviousthat if I can produce my improved tie-plate by a process which shallutilize such rails in such a manner that the manufacture of the railsshall, in fact, constitute the first step in the production of mytie-plate I not only effect a saving in utilizing old and, to somedegree at least, otherwise useless material, but I materially reduce thecost of producing my tieplate below what the manufacture of the sametie-plate would cost if made from steel billets. These and such otherobjects as may hereinafter appear are attained by the devicesillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a viewshowing a T-rail in section passing through what I call the slitting andsizing roll. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of said rail after it haspassed through the roll shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view ofmy complete tie-plate; and Fig. 1 shows a set of rolls suitable forrolling my tie-plate from sections of T-rail, the tie-plate in course ofproduction being shown in section as passing through the rolls.

Like characters of reference indicate the same parts in the severalfigures of the drawings. 7

Referring by letters and figures to the accompanying drawings, A B, Fig.1, are rolls fitted with oppositely-disposed steel washers O D,which aretapered to an annular cutting or slitting edge 0 (Z. These rolls arealso shaped at one side so as to form what I call a sizing-pass. 7

E and F are longitudinal sections of a T- rail after it has been passedthrough the slitting and sizing roll shown in Fig. 1, each of saidsections being provided with a stem cf.

1, l, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, $5, and S are rolls adapted for usein forming the tieplate, which is formed in one piece comprising theflange G and the stern H, said stem having a pointed or wedge-shapedportion h, shoulders h, and grooves 71 and said flange being providedwith ribs g, sand-troughs g, and headed edges g My improved process offorming my tieplate is as follows: A section of T -rail is first slitlongitudinally through the web thereof and about midway of the height ofthe web, so as to separate the rail into the upper and lower sections EF. This can be most econornically, conveniently, and readily done by theuse of slitting-rolls, as shown in Fig. 1, while at the same time incase the flange of the rail is of an unusual Width another step in theformation of the rail into tie-plates may by taken by upsetting theedges of such extra wide flange as the flange portion of the rail passesthrough the sizing-pass of the slitting-rolls.

As the flange of the finished tie-plate is much wider than the head of aT-rail and as it is desirable to transform the rail into tieplates withoneheating, it becomes necessary at the outset tospread the thick headof the rail laterally as much as possible while at the highesttemperature,and so in the softest condition. This can be most readilydone by the use of the wedge-shaped rolls 1 and 2, which crush the headof the rail at its thickest portion. The rail may now be further reducedin thickness and increased in width by the rolls 3 4. When the rail haspassed through this latter roll, the head-sections of therail and theflanged sections of the rail will have been rolled to approximately thesame size in cross-section and the flanged portion of the blank willhave been reduced to approximately the thickness or widthof the finishedtie-plate. By means of a ring, washer, or

suitable formation of the roll 3 a longitudinal depression is formedupon theupper surface of the blanks for a purpose which will behereinafter noted. The blanks as they come from roll 4 may now be passedbetween the rolls 5 5 for the purpose of rolling and lengthening thestem portion of the blank. In order to give the flanges of these rolls aproper grip on the blanks, the width of this pass is somewhat narrowerthan the width of the blanks, resulting in a slight upsetting of theblanks laterally. This may be corrected by now passing the blanksthrough the flat rolls 6 6. The stem 11 of the tieplate may now befinished by passing the blank vertically through the rolls 7 7, whichwill act only on the stem portion of the blank, and the nownearly-cooled blank may be completed by passing it between the rolls '88, which roll into the flange of the tie-plate the ribs g, thesand-troughs g, and the beaded edges g The blanks now being cuttransversely into suitable lengths, the tie-plate is complete.

In rolling the portion of the web of the rail to form the stem of thetie-plate the tendency of the metal is to upset in a direction to formmoreor less of a longitudinal bulge along the upper face of thetie-plate on a line above the depending stem. Therefore before passingthe blank through the rolls 5 5 I roll the before-mentioned depressionor compensating groove in the upper surface of the blank opposite to thestem by means of the formation of the roll 3. In then passing the blankthrough the rolls 5 5 the upsetting'of the metal tends to obliterate thepreviouslyformed groove, and so before passing the blank through therolls 7 7, by means of which the grooves 7L2 are formed along the sidesof the stem, the strong tendency of which formation is to again upsetthe metal, so as to form a ridge along the upper face of the tie-plate,I provide means on the roll 6 for again rolling a groove in the uppersurface of the tie-plate at this point.

Obviously other means than those described may be used to manufacturerails into my improved tie-plate, although I believe that the system ofrolling described by me shows the simplest, most certain, and mosteffective way of producing the desired result; but the rail can be slitthrough its web in other ways than by the use of my slitting-rolls, theblanks may be difierently forged, or the blanks may be rolled asdescribed for a part of the process and the flange and stem of thetie-plate may be finished in some other manner; but these and otherobvious variations in the means used to carry out my process do notconstiwhich tute any departure from the spirit of my invention, but arecontemplated thereby. So, also, it is not essential in the process ofmaking my improved tie-plate that the sandtroughs, ribs, and otherdetails mentioned should be formed thereon either in the mannerdescribed or in any other manner, these being mere details of apreferred form of my tie-plate which are not essential to the practiceof my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-

1. The improvement in the art of making T-shaped tie-plates at oneheating and without waste from the upper section of a T-rail has beendivided longitudinally through its web, which consists, first, inpassing such section of rail between wedge-shaped rolls to, spread thethickest portion of the head of the rail laterally without undueelongation, in then passing the blank so formed through passes of acontour which will form the blank into a tie-plate, in rolling a groovein the upper surface of the blank and opposite the stem thereof beforefinishing the rolling of the stem of the tie-plate, and finally rollingthe stem thereof, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. The improvement in the art of rolling T-shaped tie-plates, whichconsists in rolling a groove in the upper face of a T-shaped blank andopposite the stem thereof before completing the rolling of the stem ofthe tieplate to counteract the upsetting and swelling of the face of theblank which would otherwise be caused by the rolling of said stem, andfinally rolling the stem thereof to produce the finishedarticle,substantially as described.

3. The improvement in the process of rolling T-shaped tie-plates fromT-shaped sections of T-rails at one heating, and without loss ofmaterial, which consists in laterally spreading the rail by rolling agroove in one face of the rail section and opposite to the stem thereofbefore completing the rolling of the stem of the tie-plate to preventthe upsetting of the face of the blank upon the rolling of the stem,rolling similar grooves in the 0pposite side of the rail-sectionadjacent to and at each side of the stem, pressing the stem of therail-section into the stem of the tie-plate and finally rolling the stemthereof to produce the finished article,substantiallyas described.

JOHN M. SELLERS.

Witnesses:

M. E. SHIELDS, O. R. BARNETT.

